Broccoli Farming Guide 2024

Broccoli is an exotic vegetable. Broccoli farming is a good source of income because only a few farmers know how to grow broccoli and its marketing knowledge.

It is crispy and tasty to eat and use this vegetable in Salad. The size of broccoli’s plant is the same as cauliflower.  This vegetable has become popular in India, and food consumption has increased in the big five-star hotels and at home for making a getable salad.

Dietitian refers to Broccoli as a safe food because it is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. It contains the most proteins and vitamin A than coal crops like cabbage and cauliflower. It also contains anti-cancerous compounds and antioxidants.

The following nutrients are available in 100 grams of Broccoli. ( source – nutritiondata)

Broccoli crops required cold weather. This crop can be cultivated all over India during the winter season and areas, where rainfall is less is suitable for broccoli farming.
For Broccoli production, the ideal temperature required 25° C to 26 ° C during the day and 16° C to 17 ° C at night.
To get through the year, production broccoli farming is done in the Greenhouse.

Land:

Broccoli can be grown in a wide variety of soils type. To get a better yield from the broccoli crop, sandy and silt loam soils are most preferred. The soil PH should be between  5.5 pH – 6.5 pH.

Before Planting broccoli, Land is plowed 3-4 times, then add compost or well rotten FYM 25-30 tons/ hectare and mix thoroughly at the time of land preparation.

Preparation of seedlings:

Generally, most farmers create broccoli plant seedlings on their own felid because most of the nurseries don’t create broccoli seedlings due to less demand for broccoli seedlings. So you can buy broccoli seeds and prepared your own broccoli plant seedlings.

For creating broccoli plant seedlings, mainly two methods are available

1. Soilless media – with the help of coco peat in the plastic nursery tray
2. Soil media – raised soil  bed

Broccoli plant seedlings with soil Media procedure

• prepare  1 meter wide and 3 meters long and 30 cm wide soil bed.
• Mix roughly 10 kgs of good F.Y.M or compost manure into the soil in each bed. Likewise, add 50 grams of foret and 100 gm of Bavistin powder each spring and mix them in soils.
• Then make 5 cm parallel to the 2 cm deep line’s width on the bed and sow broccoli seed. After that, cover the seeds with fine compost material.
• Provide light water with the help of a sprinkler.
• For one hectare, broccoli cultivating hybrid seeds requires approximately 312 grams.
• Seed germination starts after 5 to 6 days, and seedlings and ready for transplantation within 35 days.
• At this time the transplantation, the broccoli plant must have 4-5 leaves.
• The best time to sow seeds is the second week of September.
• During plant growth, the temperature should be 20° C to 22 ° C.
• for better growth for the seedlings, the ideal night and day temperature is  20° C to 23° C
• While giving water to the nursery, Give quantity to be calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate, should be given to the plants mixed with 1.5 liters of water in one liter of water.
• Similarly, every 10-12 days of malathion or disease should be prevented due to diseases and diseases that do not affect the plants. + Bavistin 1 gm, or copper oxychloride 1.5 g per liter of water should be sprayed.

Broccoli variety:

This is the top variety cultivated in India –

Roylegreen, Evergreen, Danube,  Yugren, Salinas Pilgrim, Green Mountain, and Central, Premium Crop, Premium Pusa Broccoli.

Transplantation of plants:

Broccoli plants grow on a raised bed in rows and maintain the distance between raw to raw is 30 cm and plant to plant is 30 – 45  cm.

Approximately 66660 plants are required for the one-hectare area. Generally, plantation did after afternoon after plantation.

Before planting the seedlings, seedlings should be Dip the solution of fungicide 12 ml in 10 liters of water.

Water Management:

For the Broccoli crop, drip irrigation is very beneficial. It improves crop yields and quality.

Light and frequent irrigation should be given after  10-15 days intervals depending on weather conditions and maintain soil moisture around the root zone.

Fertilizer  Management:

Before giving fertilizer to the broccoli crop, the soil must be analyzed and then decide fertilizer dose quantity.

Generally, the broccoli crop is required to give 150 kg of Nitrogen, 100 kg of phosphorus, and 170kg of potassium per hectare.

Nitrogen 120 kg, 80 kg phosphorus and 60 kg potash should be applied at the transplantation time. The remaining half of nitrogen should be used in two split doses at 30 and 45 days after transplanting.

Give micronutrients according to the crop requirement. broccoli plant show  boron deficiency, so it is observed in the field then apply  boron with foiler spray or with water fertilizer

weed management

After the 30 days of transplanting, remove weed; this weed competes for food, sunlight, and air with the main crop, maintaining the crop weed-free.

Also, rake the soil on the bed, which helps increase the oxygen level to the root zone.

Pests and diseases.

Diseases

1) Damping-off:

It is a serious disease, and It occurs in the pre-emergence and the post-emergency phase. High humidity condition,  heavy rainfall poor water drain soil and low temperature this are the favorable condition for this disease
control
Seed treatment with Thiram or Captan at  2.5-3 gm/kg of seed.

2) Downy Mildew:

White Hair, like Fungus growth, is observed on the leaves. After some time, brown necrotic spots appear on the upper surface of the leaves.
control
Avoid dense sowing of seeds in the nursery For controlling the disease. At disease, the infestation stage sprays Mancozeb at  0.25%  and repeats this spray after 7 – 8 days.

3) White rust:

It is a soil-borne disease caused by the fungus Sclerotiniascelorotiorum. The white rust fungus attacks the lower surface of the outer leaves, and plants suddenly die.
control
 The fungus Sclerotiniascelorotiorum cannot survive below 15cm of soil, so deep ploughings help control white rust. For controlling this white rust, the soil should be treated with a fungicide like Bavistin at  1gm/liter of water.

4) Black rot:

First signs appear on leaves; leaves become yellow in color at leaf margin areas. Plant Veins and veinlets start to turn brown and then become black. If this infection is observed at an early stage of the plant, the plants wilt and die

5) Alternaria leaf spot

It occurs mostly in moist regions; small dark-colored Spots are observed on the plant’s leaf. After some time, they become large circular with 1mm in diameter.

pest

1) Cutworms:

The size caterpillar larva is about 3 to 4 cm long; they are gray or brown in colour. The larva may cut several plants in a single night. They hide in the daytime and feed at night.
Control:

• use Pheromone Trap   to control the production of caterpillar
• Grow paired rows of the mustard crop after every 25 rows of the broccoli crop.
• If cutworm is observed in large quantity in the broccoli field, then Spray insecticides like Rogoror, Endosulfan at  2 -3 ml/liter of water.

2) Aphids:

Aphids are small, soft-bodied, pear-shaped insects. They feed on the plants affecting the quality and production

control

A mustard crop can act as a trap crop for aphids. Spray Neems oil at 4% or Oxydemeton methyl @ 0.02%  to control aphids insect.

3) Mustard sawfly:

The larva of the mustard sawfly is greenish-black with a wrinkled body. The larvae feed on leaves. The yield decreased by 5% to 18 %.

Control
Spraying Chlorpyriphos or Quinalphos is effective against mustard sawfly.

Harvesting and Production:

After 80-90 days of transplanting, the crop is ready to harvest. Harvest broccoli when it Heads become 3 to 6 inches size with a sharp knife also this crop must be harvested before small flower open present on the broccoli crop heads.

A good quality broccoli crop Heads weight is around 250-300 gm.

On average, the yield varies from 19 to 24 tons/hectare, depending upon the variety. According to market demand, broccoli pack in a corrugated box or plastic crates.

Broccoli farming is a good source of income. this guide helps grow Broccoli complete step by step broccoli cultivation procedure.